Getting Along With

Sometimes when you encounter something for the first time, you end up seeing it again frequently. When we lived in Chicago and Dovie was pregnant for the first time it seemed that every fourth woman in Chicago was pregnant, too.


So it is with the first of today's words. I ran across it for the first time several months ago (in another of those Winston Churchill novels mentioned last Sunday) and have since seen it at least twice in magazine articles. The word is concatenation, and its first use (for me) was in describing a 21-gun salute. In my mind it was similar to concussionation (my created word - you won't find it in the dictionary) because of the image, but the subsequent uses have clarified a greater meaning. Concatenation is a noun, and is something linked together in a series, particularly with a common cause or dependency. It comes from the Latin word for chain, catena, with the prefix com, together. I find it interesting that the word came into use in English in about 1600 in both its noun and verb forms, but etymologists don't find the adjectival use for another 11 years, and it wasn't until 1872 that the word concatenating was used.


Concomitant refers usually to a pair of things where one condition, circumstance, or thing accompanies another. It can be either causally related or associated in existence in some other manner, but there is a relationship between the two. Concomitant comes from Latin (through Late Latin then Middle Latin according to my dictionary; etymonline.com says it comes through the French in 1607) from connecting the word comitari, which means to accompany, with com (like con-catenation) which means together. So the literal translation is to accompany together. Comitari comes from comes (I couldn't resist) which means companion. So there is a close relationship between the things described as concomitant.


Attendant can be a synonym for concomitant, but there is in its general use a sense of being along side of that doesn't exist in concomitant. With its connection to the word attend (from the Old French atendre, which means to wait or expect, which came from the Latin attendere that means to stretch toward and give heed to) it originally meant to accompany in a dependent position. Its use goes back to the 1550s. Attendant is the word in today's blog with the least causal relationship.


Consequent is the word with the strongest causal relationship. The sequi root comes from Latin, and means follow. Again we have the com, but this time it has the meaning "with". It came to English even earlier, in the late 14th century. When anything follows as a result, it is consequent. The word has since developed different meanings in Logic and Mathmatics.

Then there is subsequent. Sub being the Latin word for “under, closely, or up to,” a subsequent item would be any that comes under something else on a list, or closely in time. There is no connotation of cause or connection other than in time.